So I'm about done (aesthetically) with my second area, "The Armory of the Gods"... It's a linear path, and you have to reach the end before time runs out. Basically, you have a certain amount of time before one of the members of the Pantheon shows up and uses the superweapon hidden within to destroy the world. You have to reach the superweapon first, and there are things you can do to slow down the Pantheon (optional objectives that give you more time). Then, when you reach it, you must destroy it.
I present to you...
Worldrender.
A weapon forged from nothing by the Patriarch, the creator of the universe. The weapon he would use when dissatisfied with a world he had created. Stowed deep underground, the weapon was never supposed to be used again... but now, one of the divine beings that make up the Pantheon has found its location, and intends to unleash its full power.
Once you complete the objective, you have a limited amount of time to escape before the caves collapse... woo, logical time constraints!
Finally have a couple pictures. This is the first area, and the goal is to light a few fires at various points to bring life back to the Forge of the Hidden Flame before the fire goes out - forever. When the forge is lit, the player is teleported to an alternate version of the area, where they have to fight their way back before they overheat. So, there are two versions: The unlit forge, which has lain dormant for years, and the lit forge, which is full of lava and fire.
By the way, if anyone wants to use my 1.7.10 mapping server to work on, let me know ahead of time and I can set up a flatlands world for you to work on - all stone, stone up to y=128, whatever. Give me a 1.7 flatlands preset code and I'll load a world up for you, probably with your name as the name of the world. Keep in mind that if you collaborate with anyone else, you'll have to make 3 more objectives per collaborator.
If people actually put stuff in strings, literal.eval should return you a nice dictionary. Then you can just iterate over that ;-)
WARNING: Python, NBT, and other programming jargon ahead.
See, the problem isn't making the string into arrays and dicts and such. The problem is that, for example, a number typed by the user as part of the string can be either a byte, short, int, long, float, or double, and I have to know which type it is because it has to be converted to NBT tags, which don't work if they're the wrong type. How is "Unbreakable:1" (an NBT_Byte tag) different from "RepairCost:1" (an NBT_Int tag)? I end up having to parse the names of the tags, and compare them using a list (ok it's a dictionary but whatever) of which tag name corresponds to which tag type. And I'm not very fast at writing code. Also, not only are there lists (which use the "[]" characters in the input string) and compound tags (which use "{}"), but there are also TAG_Byte_Array and TAG_Int_Array, which I don't even know how to handle...
Technical jargon ends.
By the way, one thing I learned from all this: Did you know that in 1.8, you can make player heads that use any texture at all, which need not be associated with a Minecraft/Mojang account? True fact! Player heads don't need to use a UUID; in 1.8 their structure includes a URL that normally points to files on textures.minecraft.net - however, it can be any URL at all. So, you can make as many custom player heads as you want now. Just another tool in the rapidly expanding and already way too big toolkit of the average mapper.
Speaking of which, January is a good time for people, right? Most people's spring semesters will just be starting, although I did have fall semesters that went into January a little bit when I was in high school. So perhaps a week or two in? We should start a poll or something. Any of the first 3 weekends of January work equally well for me.
Oh and Krose, I'm still working on that filter. Converting a written-out string of NBT tags to actual NBT format is harder than you'd think. I wish I knew how Minecraft did it. Thankfully, working with Python is probably easier than working with Java.
So Fangride has been busy with the CTM community Christmas map, but that's just about done so he should be able to finish the updates to Pantheon. Isn't that right, Fang? (Also I think you promised a screenshot of the new Dormant Mines a while back...)
I love random loot, but it needs to be exercised well in order for it to be effective.
If you could create an mcedit filter for randomised loot, I would be eternally grateful. I hate going through my maps and placing loot by hand. If I was able to run the filter a few times, to get 80% of the job done before going through in-game to edit the chest contents, I'd complete my map so much faster!
You'd need to implement several features to make it beastly, though:
1. The ability to specify the slots in which specific loot may appear and the chance of this occurring.
2. The ability to edit items, such as adding names and lore, enchantments, attribute modifiers, custom potion effects (and to ensure that custom enchantment books are possible- a major flaw of Kamyu's attempt).
3. Clear instructions on how to use it, including layout of chest inventories- numbered slots, etc.
Of course, you'd probably need to tell us how to write the "code" required in a notepad document, for the filter to read it properly.
This sounds like a huge project, but if you pull it off, I for one would be ecstatic
The way I'm constructing it now, you can specify multiple "types" of loot - like, "junk" or "weapons" or "food" - each with a frequency that you can specify and a list of items in that type. The list of items is formatted like: "ID,quantity,damage,NBT tags". One item per line. The NBT tags can be any valid NBT tags (and probably some invalid ones, so watch out). So, a lot of possibility, but also some knowledge of the NBT format is required. (I might later make a filter that can take a chest of items and give you a list of items using the above formatting.)
For each slot in an empty chest, the filter picks one of the types (based on the frequency you specified), and then randomly picks one item from that type. Like, if you have junk with frequency 0.1, weapons with frequency 0.2, and food with frequency 0.05, then for each slot in an empty chest, there will be a 35% chance of an item filling it - 10% junk, 20% weapons, and 5% food. If it picks, say, "weapons", then it will pick one weapon from your list of weapons. If that list of weapons has 20 items on it, then for each weapon, there will be an overall 1% chance that any given slot will end up with that weapon.
Here's a picture of an example file I threw together:
Basically: Yes, you can "weight" the probability of different items showing up. Multiple items that you want weighted the same can be put into a "type" list together. You can have a "good weapons" type, a "mediocre weapons" type, and a "bad weapons" type, for example. I didn't plan on implementing the ability to specify which slot you want the item in, but the items will automatically "spread out" inside the chest - they won't be clumped up like what Kamyu's tool caused.
Keep in mind that if there's anything important that I'm missing, you can let me know and I'll adjust the plan.
Would anyone here have interest in a random loot filter for MCEdit? I'm designing one as a sort of programming exercise, and I basically want to know if I should make it user-friendly.
By the way, while I'm on the topic and because I anticipate the question coming up: What are people's opinions on using random loot? I feel like people always point to Inferno Mines as an example that random loot doesn't work, but they always forget that Waking Up, which was probably one of Vechs' best maps, used random loot. I think it's like any other tool: In the right hands, used correctly, it can work very well, but if the person using it doesn't care enough to do it right, it turns out horribly. Also, it can't be the only type of loot you use; it has to be just a part of your loot system.
Problem with Pantheon is that it literally could not be made to include shortcuts like that. Have you seen the size of it? I believe they had serious trouble compiling it because of its size, and in the end had to just put the areas in and then create teleports instead of jigsawing them in together in the right places.
Hey.
Guess what I did when I recompiled Pantheon for the update to 1.8.
...okay, so I didn't actually put in any cool shortcuts, but I jigsawed it together. Which led to some interesting situations; for one, Colossus Devorantem ended up (partially) located directly on top of Belly of the Beast. The updated map should be coming out as soon as Fang finishes with his changes. Or maybe when Titan's Revolt comes out. Speaking of which, progress on TR is... kinda happening, I guess.
I suppose I've got a review to do, also...
★★★★★ Ragecraft II: Insomnia (1.7.2) by Heliceo
Difficulty: 8 Overall Enjoyment: 10
Comments: Without a doubt the best CTM map I have ever played, Insomnia is incredibly well designed and well built. It's massive and rather difficult, but don't let that put you off. Over the course of my 109-episode Let's Play of the map, only a few of my 40 deaths felt undeserved or unfair. Most of the areas are incredibly fun and require thorough exploration to beat. From the graverobbing of Last Sanctuary, to the dungeon-delving of Death Row, to the cityscape-jumping of Ninja Academy, the approximate first half of the map is pure excellence.
However, the second half of the map contains some areas that started wearing down my patience a bit. The Hunting Grounds, which used an interesting hunger-manipulating mechanic, ended up being a slow, grindy, somewhat uninteresting area. Worse, though, was the following area "Crumbling Abyss", which kept the hunger mechanic (wherein you had to kill a wolf every couple of minutes or begin starving) but also incorporated void. Perhaps this is the biggest flaw of Ragecraft II: The varied mechanics and gimmicks introduced sometimes fall short of being fun. For the most part, I enjoy creative gimmicks - they help keep the areas interesting once you reach the point of overpoweredness - but sometimes they aren't quite enjoyable. In addition, there are a few areas past the midway point that simply feel like they incorporate "fake difficulty" - the area is too punishing of failure, and not rewarding enough of success.
Overall, though, Ragecraft II: Insomnia is undoubtedly one of the best maps of the past couple of years. The attention to detail in the map is second to none, the areas are creative and (for the most part) highly enjoyable, and the pros outweigh the cons heavily enough to make this my favorite map of all time.
And Apollo's wrong - I personally love it when posts aren't concise. It's real nice to have "essays" that truly allow us to get a grasp on individual people's opinions. So thanks for that! (Although the irony of you, being a lurker, coming in and thrusting yourself upon the thread much like Al did in a "here's my opinion!" kind of way wasn't lost on me :P)
4
I present to you...
Worldrender.
A weapon forged from nothing by the Patriarch, the creator of the universe. The weapon he would use when dissatisfied with a world he had created. Stowed deep underground, the weapon was never supposed to be used again... but now, one of the divine beings that make up the Pantheon has found its location, and intends to unleash its full power.
Once you complete the objective, you have a limited amount of time to escape before the caves collapse... woo, logical time constraints!
0
Imgur album: Here
0
0
Do we typically pick a "best map"? I thought we had categories.
Also, the poll is a "pick one", not a "pick multiple"... is that a thing you can change?
0
WARNING: Python, NBT, and other programming jargon ahead.
See, the problem isn't making the string into arrays and dicts and such. The problem is that, for example, a number typed by the user as part of the string can be either a byte, short, int, long, float, or double, and I have to know which type it is because it has to be converted to NBT tags, which don't work if they're the wrong type. How is "Unbreakable:1" (an NBT_Byte tag) different from "RepairCost:1" (an NBT_Int tag)? I end up having to parse the names of the tags, and compare them using a list (ok it's a dictionary but whatever) of which tag name corresponds to which tag type. And I'm not very fast at writing code. Also, not only are there lists (which use the "[]" characters in the input string) and compound tags (which use "{}"), but there are also TAG_Byte_Array and TAG_Int_Array, which I don't even know how to handle...
Technical jargon ends.
By the way, one thing I learned from all this: Did you know that in 1.8, you can make player heads that use any texture at all, which need not be associated with a Minecraft/Mojang account? True fact! Player heads don't need to use a UUID; in 1.8 their structure includes a URL that normally points to files on textures.minecraft.net - however, it can be any URL at all. So, you can make as many custom player heads as you want now. Just another tool in the rapidly expanding and already way too big toolkit of the average mapper.
0
Speaking of which, January is a good time for people, right? Most people's spring semesters will just be starting, although I did have fall semesters that went into January a little bit when I was in high school. So perhaps a week or two in? We should start a poll or something. Any of the first 3 weekends of January work equally well for me.
Oh and Krose, I'm still working on that filter. Converting a written-out string of NBT tags to actual NBT format is harder than you'd think. I wish I knew how Minecraft did it. Thankfully, working with Python is probably easier than working with Java.
0
0
Wait, now that I think of it, I did some work on the spawn room.
0
3
The way I'm constructing it now, you can specify multiple "types" of loot - like, "junk" or "weapons" or "food" - each with a frequency that you can specify and a list of items in that type. The list of items is formatted like: "ID,quantity,damage,NBT tags". One item per line. The NBT tags can be any valid NBT tags (and probably some invalid ones, so watch out). So, a lot of possibility, but also some knowledge of the NBT format is required. (I might later make a filter that can take a chest of items and give you a list of items using the above formatting.)
For each slot in an empty chest, the filter picks one of the types (based on the frequency you specified), and then randomly picks one item from that type. Like, if you have junk with frequency 0.1, weapons with frequency 0.2, and food with frequency 0.05, then for each slot in an empty chest, there will be a 35% chance of an item filling it - 10% junk, 20% weapons, and 5% food. If it picks, say, "weapons", then it will pick one weapon from your list of weapons. If that list of weapons has 20 items on it, then for each weapon, there will be an overall 1% chance that any given slot will end up with that weapon.
Here's a picture of an example file I threw together:
Basically: Yes, you can "weight" the probability of different items showing up. Multiple items that you want weighted the same can be put into a "type" list together. You can have a "good weapons" type, a "mediocre weapons" type, and a "bad weapons" type, for example. I didn't plan on implementing the ability to specify which slot you want the item in, but the items will automatically "spread out" inside the chest - they won't be clumped up like what Kamyu's tool caused.
Keep in mind that if there's anything important that I'm missing, you can let me know and I'll adjust the plan.
3
By the way, while I'm on the topic and because I anticipate the question coming up: What are people's opinions on using random loot? I feel like people always point to Inferno Mines as an example that random loot doesn't work, but they always forget that Waking Up, which was probably one of Vechs' best maps, used random loot. I think it's like any other tool: In the right hands, used correctly, it can work very well, but if the person using it doesn't care enough to do it right, it turns out horribly. Also, it can't be the only type of loot you use; it has to be just a part of your loot system.
2
Hey.
Guess what I did when I recompiled Pantheon for the update to 1.8.
...okay, so I didn't actually put in any cool shortcuts, but I jigsawed it together. Which led to some interesting situations; for one, Colossus Devorantem ended up (partially) located directly on top of Belly of the Beast. The updated map should be coming out as soon as Fang finishes with his changes. Or maybe when Titan's Revolt comes out. Speaking of which, progress on TR is... kinda happening, I guess.
9
★★★★★ Ragecraft II: Insomnia (1.7.2) by Heliceo
Difficulty: 8
Overall Enjoyment: 10
Comments: Without a doubt the best CTM map I have ever played, Insomnia is incredibly well designed and well built. It's massive and rather difficult, but don't let that put you off. Over the course of my 109-episode Let's Play of the map, only a few of my 40 deaths felt undeserved or unfair. Most of the areas are incredibly fun and require thorough exploration to beat. From the graverobbing of Last Sanctuary, to the dungeon-delving of Death Row, to the cityscape-jumping of Ninja Academy, the approximate first half of the map is pure excellence.
However, the second half of the map contains some areas that started wearing down my patience a bit. The Hunting Grounds, which used an interesting hunger-manipulating mechanic, ended up being a slow, grindy, somewhat uninteresting area. Worse, though, was the following area "Crumbling Abyss", which kept the hunger mechanic (wherein you had to kill a wolf every couple of minutes or begin starving) but also incorporated void. Perhaps this is the biggest flaw of Ragecraft II: The varied mechanics and gimmicks introduced sometimes fall short of being fun. For the most part, I enjoy creative gimmicks - they help keep the areas interesting once you reach the point of overpoweredness - but sometimes they aren't quite enjoyable. In addition, there are a few areas past the midway point that simply feel like they incorporate "fake difficulty" - the area is too punishing of failure, and not rewarding enough of success.
Overall, though, Ragecraft II: Insomnia is undoubtedly one of the best maps of the past couple of years. The attention to detail in the map is second to none, the areas are creative and (for the most part) highly enjoyable, and the pros outweigh the cons heavily enough to make this my favorite map of all time.
SCORE:
Aesthetics: 9
Creativity: 9
Gameplay: 7
TOTAL: 25
0
I think he was referring to how the background is out of focus.
1
I want to agree with Apollo, but I've written too many Great Text Walls of China to avoid being a hypocrite.